


Stay with Me

by AllonsyBatch



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: 5+1 Things, F/M, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Literal Sleeping Together, Sharing a Bed, Sleeping Together, Terraqua Day (Kingdom Hearts), Terraqua Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-09-28 02:49:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20418671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllonsyBatch/pseuds/AllonsyBatch
Summary: Five times Aqua and Terra shared a bed, and one time they didn't.5 + 1 written for Terraqua Week 2019 (A little early, but whatevs)





	Stay with Me

I.

Terra loved thunderstorms. He sighed contentedly as he stared up at the inky blackness of the sky from his bedroom window, where he was curled on the small bench below. The window was cracked open, and he closed his eyes to take a deep breath, breathing in the smell of the rain on the earth and the life that would reawaken the spring plants that had just barely begun their creep up from the frozen winter ground. 

Another flash of lightning preceded a large clap of thunder, and he heard a small sound not associated with the storm outside. Turning to face his bedroom door, he saw Aqua’s small face peering through from the hallway, like she was waiting for him to notice her but didn’t want to speak. 

Aqua had been here for a few weeks now, and Terra was still getting used to no longer being the only student. At first he’d been bitter, having enjoyed having Master Eraqus all to himself, but then he realized just how lonely he’d been, and was grateful for someone to play games with, talk to, and otherwise spend time with instead of being alone. Aqua was his friend now, and he liked to spend time with her. 

“What are you doing?” Terra whispered, jumping down from the windowsill and padding over to the door in his bare feet. He was a little embarrassed for Aqua to see him in his puppy pajamas, but a quick look showed that hers had little kittens on them, so he supposed they were equal in that aspect. 

“I don’t like storms,” Aqua whispered back, still standing in the hallway shivering. Even for a seven-year-old she was small, although she could hold her own whenever she and Terra would wrestle and play. He’d made the mistake of calling her a “stupid girl” once, only to pay for it with a swift kick in the crotch right after. He’d not made the same mistake again. 

“Well, are you going to stand out there all night, or are you gonna come in?” Terra asked, giving the hallway a quick glance to make sure Master Eraqus’ light at the end of the hall was out. 

“I’m not a’posed to be in your room,” Aqua replied quietly, Terra rolling his eyes and pulling her in by the arm. 

“Do you _always_ follow the rules?” he sighed, shutting the door quietly behind her. 

Aqua stood in the middle of the room while Terra shut his window, wiping away the few drops of rain that had managed to blow inside. Just as he finished, another flash of lightning lit the room, Aqua closing her eyes and making a small yipping sound as the thunder followed. 

“You’re not scared?” Aqua asked him after, Terra shaking his head defiantly as he pulled the covers back on his bed and sat down on top of the sheets, patting beside him so Aqua would come sit down too. She practically ran over and jumped into the bed beside him, putting her feet under the covers and bringing her knees up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them. 

“Of course not, I’m not afraid of anything,” he responded, putting his own feet under the covers and lying down beside Aqua, arms behind his head. 

“That’s not true-you screamed the other day when Master found a snake by the pond,” Aqua argued, the ghost of a sly grin on her face. 

“That’s different,” Terra replied curly. “I wasn’t expecting it and I was just…surprised.” 

“But not scared.” 

“Not scared.” 

Another flash of lightning lit the room, Aqua cringing and closing her eyes to await the thunder. 

“It’s going away now,” Terra told her. “See how it’s taking longer for the thunder?”

Sure enough, it took several seconds before the thunder sounded, and it was much quieter than before. 

“Master told me that the more time there is between the lightning and thunder, the further away the storm is,” he explained, Aqua lying down beside him and curling into a ball under the covers. 

“I still don’t like it,” she answered, hiding her face in the sheets every time the lightning flashed. 

“Well, then stay here,” Terra yawned, stretching and turning over to face the same direction as her. “I’ll protect you.” 

“All night?” Aqua asked, following his yawn with one of her own. 

“Sure, no big deal.” 

They both fell asleep shortly after, back to back under the covers of Terra’s bed. Neither noticed when Aqua was picked up and carried back to her own bed sometime before morning, so neither noticed the fond smile of their Master when he rose early to find the two of them sound asleep, Terra’s hand on top of Aqua’s as it rested upon the pillow.

II.

“NO!” 

Aqua jolted awake at the sound, doing a quick scan of her room and not finding the source of the shout. She blinked at the clock beside her bed and found it to be the middle of the night, and her face fell in concern when she realized what it must have been-Terra had had another nightmare. 

Somewhere around the time he couldn’t utter a sentence without his voice breaking two or three times, and when his arms and legs started to seem like they were too long for his body, and the faintest dusting of hair started showing up on his face-Terra had begun having nightmares. At first Aqua had thought nothing of it-everyone had bad dreams sometimes-but their frequency and severity soon showed that it was no normal occurrence. Terra would wake up in hysterics four or five times a week, sometimes more if they were in the middle of particularly stressful training-and for someone who usually slept like a corpse, he had started to look haggard and worn during the day to the point where Master Eraqus had taken him off-world for medical evaluation. 

The answers were always the same-they would pass, it was normal, just a phase. Until then, Terra was advised to get plenty of exercise, drink hot tea, meditate, and a slew of other things that did nothing in the way of helping him when he woke up from some sort of terrible vision that never failed to keep him up the rest of the night. Only one thing had helped. 

Sighing, Aqua got out of bed and stretched, grabbing her blankets from her bed and wrapping them around herself before sneaking out to the hallway and into the room across from hers. Sure enough, Terra was sitting up in bed, his head in his hands, looking like he was trying to slow his breathing. He was covered in a light sheen of sweat, and Aqua had to stamp out the feeling of her cheeks heating up when she first saw him. 

Aqua had seen him hundreds of times with no shirt on, but something had changed this past summer, and she still hadn’t been able to explain it. Where she used to think nothing of Terra bounding past her in nothing but shorts and jumping into the pond on the castle grounds, this year her face had grown fiery red as she watched his lanky frame splash in the water, and something stirred in the very pit of her belly at the sight of him. Now wasn’t the time to think about it though, and she was only concerned with making sure he was all right. 

Without a word she shut the door silently behind her, crossing to his bed and holding her arms out. Like every other time, he silently leaned into her, adjusting his breathing to match the steady rise and fall of her chest. It took less time than normal, maybe because he was so used to it at this point, but after a few moments, he lifted his head and nodded. 

“Thanks.” 

“Scoot,” Aqua ordered, Terra swinging his legs back into bed and shifting himself over so Aqua could get in beside him. Once they were both under the covers (Aqua not missing the fact that Terra pulled them all the way up to his chin), she turned to face him.

“Want to talk about it?” she whispered, both of them knowing the exact volume they could maintain without the Master waking up and shooing Aqua back to her own room. 

“Same thing again,” Terra sighed, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them again. He looked exhausted, which was understandable considering this was the third time this week he had woken the same way. 

“The yellow eyes?”

Terra nodded, reaching an arm out from under the covers and brushing his hair out of his face. It was getting longer, and Aqua wondered if he was going to let it get long enough to pull back the way the Master did. 

“It’s not just the eyes…it’s…it’s like I can feel myself there, but I can’t move or anything,” he explained, shaking his head against the pillow. “I can’t move or talk or fight, and I can just hear this laughing in my head.” 

Aqua had thought that it didn’t sound so scary to her, but she knew that sometimes nightmares felt much worse than they were perceived to be by others. She’d had her own fair share, but none as crippling as Terra’s. 

“And…this time there was something else. You were there,” he whispered, deliberately not looking at her. 

“Me?” Aqua asked, maybe a little louder than she should have. She had recently had a couple dreams about Terra as well, but there wasn’t enough munny in the world for her to tell anyone about _them_.

Terra nodded, and Aqua could tell by the look on his face that her presence in his dream was nothing like his presence in hers. 

“What…what was I doing?” she asked, a little afraid of the answer.

Terra shook his head, but after a pleading look from Aqua he sighed and continued. 

“I…I was choking you. I don’t know why. It was like I was watching myself do it, but I couldn’t make it stop. I wanted it to stop. I wanted it-“

“It’s okay, Terra, it’s not real,” Aqua shushed him, surprising him by putting her hand on the side of his face. “It’s not real, and I know you would never do that.”

“I would never hurt you,” he confirmed, looking somewhat taken aback by her touch and giving a small sigh of relief when she removed her hand. “Not on purpose, anyway.” 

“I know. Just training stuff. Like when you sent me flying into the pond the other day,” she teased, glad to see him smile right after. 

“Only after you made me fall on my butt in the mud!” he laughed, the two of them having to cover their mouths to stifle their giggles. They stopped after a few minutes, Terra finally rolling over so his back was to Aqua. “Thanks for calming me down.” 

“No problem,” Aqua answered, rolling over herself so they were back to back, their usual position when they fell asleep together. Terra knew she’d wake up early enough to get back to her room so the Master wouldn’t yell at them. 

“Goodnight, Aqua.” 

“Goodnight, Terra.”

III.

“Just admit that you’re wrong, Aqua.”

“I’m not wrong, you just won’t listen to any reason besides your own!”

“But it’s totally ridiculous!”

“It’s not ridiculous, you’re just not listening to me!”

Terra huffed, closing his eyes and willing himself to not shout so as not to be heard from outside the room. It was late, and if the Master knew he was in Aqua’s bedroom he’d be scrubbing floors for a week. Plus, there was the new kid to think about-he’d most likely be asleep by now. 

“All I’m saying, is that Superman has way more power because he was born with it, whereas Batman is just a normal guy,” he whispered, Aqua shaking her head before he was even finished, handing him another slice of pizza even though she looked like she could knock his head off at any moment. 

“I get that, but Batman is self-taught, which means he’s way smarter, and more resourceful!” 

This was a typical Friday evening for them, staying up late since they wouldn’t be expected to be out for early training in the morning. Terra had swiped the leftovers from the kitchen and they had laid their bounty out on Aqua’s bed, eating and talking up until Master Eraqus had made his rounds to tell them to go to bed. They’d done that, and then waited until the Master was asleep for Terra to sneak back in just like he always did. 

This was home, and this was what they did-until their “normal” had been interrupted by the arrival of a new student. The two of them had tried multiple times to talk to Ventus, but the boy never seemed to respond to any of their attempts to include him. 

For this reason, when there was a quiet knock on Aqua’s bedroom door, the two older students assumed that it had to be Master Eraqus, and therefore Terra leapt off the bed with astounding agility and hid in the closet. 

“Yes, Master, I’ll turn off the light….oh,” Aqua stopped when she opened the door, surprised to see instead the ruffled blond head of Ventus standing there. “Terra, you can come out, it’s just Ventus.” 

Terra stumbled from the closet, one of Aqua’s shirts sticking to his shoulder as he climbed out of the small space. “Good thing, I don’t think the Master would let me live if he caught me again.” 

“We didn’t wake you up, did we?” Aqua asked, gesturing for Ventus to come in and shutting the door quietly behind him. 

Ventus shook his head, watching Aqua and Terra reclaim their spaces on Aqua’s bed, Terra shifting over slightly and patting the space beside him for Ventus to join. 

“Hey Ven, maybe you can help me win an argument,” Terra said, Ven and Aqua both raising eyebrows to the new nickname. “Who would win in a fight? Superman or Batman?”

Ven hadn’t said much since he had come to stay with them in the Land of Departure, and now was the first time that Aqua and Terra had seen the faint beginnings of a smile on his face since they first met him. 

“Um…Batman, I guess.”

“HA!” Aqua laughed, just loud enough for Terra to shush her before groaning in defeat. 

“Come on, I thought us guys had to stick together here, you were supposed to be my ally!” Terra whined, flopping backwards on the bed while Aqua handed Ven a slice of cold pizza. 

Ven grinned and sat down in the space beside Terra, feeling a little braver with the huge grin Aqua was giving him. 

“Batman’s got all the gadgets though-Superman just has brute strength.” 

“See Terra?” Aqua teased, slapping Terra’s leg playfully. “I told you, it’s not all about strength. Ven and I know what we’re talking about here.” 

“I am alone in this world and neither of you are my friends anymore,” Terra sighed, looking up at the ceiling while Aqua and Ven laughed. 

“Too bad, you’re stuck with us now,” Aqua laughed, throwing a piece of pizza at his head and laughing hysterically with Ven when it landed directly on his face. 

Hours later, the pizza was gone and Terra was snoring with his head on one end of Aqua’s bed while Ven and Aqua talked at the other end. 

“So…you guys do this a lot?” Ven asked, finger idly fiddling with the edge of the sheets he was lying on. 

“Yeah, we’ve been here together since we were kids, so we’re best friends,” Aqua explained, folding the empty pizza box and tossing it on the floor beside her bed. “It’s nice to have someone new to talk to though, so we’re really glad you’re here with us.” 

“I’m glad too,” Ven admitted, although he remembered nothing from before coming to this place. “Thanks for letting me hang out with you guys.” 

“Of course,” Aqua laughed, moving one of Terra’s legs out of the way so she could lie down too. “But we better get to bed-I bet you’re still catching up on your sleep, huh? I remember how tough it was when I first got here-new place and all.” 

“Yeah, but it’s getting better,” Ven admitted, dreading having to go back to his own, quiet room. 

“Well, you’re welcome to stay here if you want,” Aqua yawned, leaning over to turn off the lamp. “Terra snores, but you get used to it. Just watch out for his arms-he’s a cuddler.” 

Ven giggled, Aqua snorting quietly along with him as they settled down into the much-too-small bed, all of them facing different directions and covered in different blankets. 

It might not be a totally normal one, but it was good to have a home.

IV.  
Terra hesitated outside the Gummiship, Aqua the only one noticing and turning around when she saw that he had stopped. 

“It’s air-worthy, I promise,” she replied with an exhausted smile. “It’s how we got here.” 

He had been back for less than an hour, every sense he had dialed to eleven as he tried to sort through the mess of emotions and physical stimuli he’d been denied for twelve years. Even stepping up the ramp was an experience, Terra looking down to watch his feet rise off the ground and into the brightly-colored ship.

“I suppose it’s weird to finally be yourself again, huh?” Ven asked, holding a hand out to Terra to help him up the final step into the ship, Terra nodding before sighing loudly. 

“You really have no idea,” he answered, his voice just barely audible over the roar of the engines firing on. Terra clapped his hands over his ears, the sound too much for him after so many years of muted everything. When he removed his hands from his head, eyes still wide in concern, he softened slightly when Ven took one hand, Aqua taking the other. 

“You’ll get used to everything again,” Aqua assured him, leading him to where the seats were and helping him get belted in. “And we’ll be there to help you through it.” 

Terra looked concerned as Aqua started fastening the safety harnesses around him, and he was glad that she noticed before anyone else did and recognized the fear in his eyes. 

“I know it probably doesn’t feel great to be tethered in right now, but it’s only for take off, then you can get up and move around,” she whispered, only loud enough for him to hear. She took the seat next to him, belting herself in before reaching across to take his hand again, which he did gladly, squeezing it tightly as everyone else readied themselves for takeoff.

“How long have you been back?” he asked as everyone moved to their seats, only loud enough for Aqua to hear. He was having trouble regulating his own volume, and everything still seemed so loud. 

“A few weeks,” she answered, giving his hand another squeeze and turning it so she could lace her fingers between his. If he noticed he gave no indication, watching her face carefully as she explained. “Sora, Riku, and the King managed to find me, pulled me out. We went to wake up Ven and…well, it’s a long story, really.” 

“I’ve got time,” Terra joked, although his face never went far from a furrowed look of concern. Aqua watched as he looked down at his other hand, flexing the fingers back and forth as if he were amazed that they were doing his own bidding. 

“I knew you were in there,” Aqua whispered back to him, just as everyone finally settled into their seats. “I knew you would come back to us.”

Terra was so mesmerized by his ability to move his own fingers and the feeling of Aqua’s hand in his again that he didn’t pay much attention to the ship taking off, and before he had a chance to even ask about it everybody was getting out of their seats. 

“What, that was it?” he asked, Aqua letting go of his hand to unbuckle her harness, reaching over to help Terra with his. 

“Apparently a lot has changed since the days of our Keyblade Gliders,” she teased, tugging him up out of his seat and pulling him toward the front so he could look out the window. They were flying smoothly through the Lanes Between, the stars twinkling brightly in the night sky. Terra sighed, his mind reeling with everything-there was so much that had happened, and it finally hit him all at once. 

Taking a step back from the window, Terra leaned against the nearest wall of the ship, grateful that everyone else seemed to be occupied with finding food and a comfortable place to spend the flight. His chest felt tight, and suddenly everything he saw seemed to have black circles around it. 

“Terra? Are you okay?” Aqua asked quietly, signaling to Ven from across the room. The blond boy came trotting over, recognizing the unusual look on Terra’s face immediately. 

“Terra, what’s wrong?” Ven asked, Terra shaking his head as he rubbed at his eyes with his fists, trying to remember how to take a full breath but coming up short. 

“I don’t know, he just got really pale,” Aqua told Ven quietly as Terra let his legs give out and slid quietly to the floor. It was too much-too much sound, too much feeling, too much…everything. “Terra…talk to me…” 

He looked up, eyes wide with panic but softening at the sight of Aqua’s gaze locked on his. 

“It’s…too much,” he mumbled, unable to vocalize everything he was feeling at once. “It’s…it’s been a long time. So much has happened…” 

“I know,” she answered with a nod, pulling him forward so his head rested against her shoulder. “I think you just need to rest. All of us do.” 

“Speak for yourself, I was asleep for twelve years,” Ven tried to tease, although it was lost on the current company. “I’ll go see if I can clear a couch.” 

There was a small living area inside the Gummiship away from the seats they had used for takeoff, and the travelers were already spread over the small collection of couches and chairs that surrounded it. 

“Sit down, I’ll go get us something to eat,” Aqua told Terra, leaving him to sit on a vacant couch before she walked with Ven to the kitchenette. 

“What’s with him?” Ven asked, quiet enough only for Aqua to hear. “He’s not acting like himself…do you think he’s still…?”

“No,” Aqua answered quickly, shaking her head as she opened the fridge, hunting for anything that Terra might be willing to consume. “We were still ourselves all the time we were gone, Ven. He…he had to be someone else. I can’t imagine what he’s going through.” 

They shared a look of concern, Aqua grabbing a few bottles of water and handing them to Ven before they headed back to where Terra sat. 

“Heads up, Terra,” Ven called, tossing him a bottle. Instead of catching it, however, Terra didn’t move at all, the bottle hitting him square in the face before he reacted. “Oh man, sorry!”

“It’s okay,” he answered, picking up the bottle and rubbing his forehead where it had hit him. “I keep expecting someone else to move for me.” 

There was a moment of awkward silence during which Aqua grabbed Terra’s free hand again, squeezing it comfortingly while Ven started to ramble about everything they’d done for the last several weeks. He was talking so animatedly that he barely noticed the look that Aqua and Terra shared-a look that somehow managed to calm them both, Aqua leaning over to whisper in Terra’s ear. 

“You okay?” she asked, putting her other hand on top of their joined ones. He nodded, turning his head back to Ven before answering. 

“As okay as you could expect,” he replied quietly. “I’m assuming you’re the same. What about him?”

“He’s fine, as far as I can tell,” she answered, Ven still oblivious to their muted conversation. “Grew a few inches-he’s almost taller than me.” 

“That’s setting the bar low,” Terra quipped back, Aqua chuckling and hitting his arm. 

“Ugh, it really is you,” she teased, Terra smiling for the first time since their reunion. “It’s good to see you smile again. I missed it.” 

“Feels weird,” Terra admitted, using his free hand to feel his own face. 

“Are you guys listening?” Ven asked, the two of them looking up guiltily at where Ven stood with his hands on his hips. “Should have known you two would start making googly eyes at each other right away.” He raised his eyebrow at them but smiled in such a way that there was no actual animosity, and waved his hand. “I’m gonna go find something to eat.” 

“Googly eyes?” Terra asked, giving Aqua a confused look before she sighed and rested her head on Terra’s shoulder. 

“Don’t worry about it, he hasn’t lost any of his sass,” she answered, holding Terra’s arm like a body pillow and stretching out on the couch. “You can rest, you know.” 

“I’m afraid to close my eyes,” he admitted, voice smaller than it had been, Aqua raising her head to look at him closer.

“He’s gone, Terra,” she whispered, reaching up to brush his hair off his forehead with one hand. It was longer than it was when she had last seen him, but she was so glad to see that familiar brown shade. “He can’t hurt you anymore.” 

“What about you?” he asked, and it was then that Aqua noticed just how exhausted he looked. 

“I’m not going anywhere,” she answered. “I just got you back, I’m not going to let you out of my sight.” Before she could give it much thought, she leaned over and kissed the side of his head, Terra’s entire body seeming to slump slightly in relaxation as she did so. 

“Wake me up when we get…wherever we’re going?” he asked, Aqua adjusting so he could rest his head against her shoulder instead. His eyes were already closing, and Aqua smiled at the familiar weight against her body as he yawned. 

“Don’t worry, we won’t do anything fun without you,” she chuckled softly, sinking into the couch with Terra half on top of her, resting one hand against his head where she was gently sifting through his hair. 

By the time Ven came back, Terra was snoring softly against Aqua’s chest, his head rising and falling with each of her breaths. Ven smiled conspiratorially, sitting on the couch near where Terra was slumped over. “I was wondering if he would notice when you slipped him that sleeping potion.” 

Aqua smiled as she moved the bottle of “water” off to the side, Terra barely budging. 

“Like I said before, he needs to rest,” she answered quietly, still brushing her fingers idly through Terra’s hair. 

“I’m glad you guys found each other, Aqua,” Ven said with a grin, Aqua feeling her face heat up just a bit. 

“I told you we would all be together again,” she replied, holding back a yawn herself. 

“You can go to sleep too, you know,” Ven told her, turning his back and lying against Terra, his human pillow not responding in the slightest. “I’ll keep an eye out.” 

It was good that everyone else on the Gummiship was also exhausted, as there certainly would have been pictures taken an hour later when the three Wayfinders were found curled up around each other, all three of them snoring softly on the small couch-together again.

V. 

Terra sighed and stared up at the ceiling, flopping over to his back for what had to be the fiftieth time that night. He knew the moment he laid down he wouldn’t sleep, but he was at least humoring the idea of a miracle. They’d been home at the Land of Departure for nearly a month now, but up until a few days ago he and Aqua had been just about totally nocturnal. 

Night had become a shared fear between the two of them, and after the fourth night in a row of them running into each other in the kitchen after a nightmare, they decided to simply sleep during the day when it was light out instead. The sleep was never as good, but it seemed to keep the nightmares at bay. Ven was constantly off-world doing missions for Master Yen Sid, so it had worked for them until recently. 

“Recently” was when Master Yen Sid suggested they continue Master Eraqus’ work of educating young Keyblade wielders as Masters themselves. Terra had scoffed at the proposed title at first, but had warmed up to it with a simple pout from Aqua-something that proved to be more valuable than anything these last couple months since his return. 

Something had changed between them, which was to be expected considering all the events that had led up to their current situation. Terra, however, had never dreamed that the problems he was currently having would ever come to fruition. He loved her. He loved Aqua the same way he had always loved Aqua-as a partner and a best friend. But now he also loved her in a way he never had before. He noticed things he never noticed before-the way she flipped her hair over her ears before she cast a magic spell, the way she practically skipped when she was on her way to the training ground, and most importantly-the way her eyes seemingly lit up the world when she smiled at Terra. 

He rubbed his face with both hands and turned over to face the wall again. He’d changed too. What used to feel so easy between them had become difficult for him. His heart would pound in his chest, his knees would shake, and every sweat gland on his body seemed to go into overdrive whenever he looked at her, and this was just completely unacceptable. Aqua was his partner. His best friend. And he would not jeopardize that for anything… 

…which was why he had started to avoid her. At first, he was concerned that he was hurting her with his flagrant refusals to be alone in a room together, before he realized that she was seemingly doing the exact same thing. He supposed it was reasonable given the fact that Terra had single-handedly been responsible for Aqua spending the last twelve years in the Dark Realm and the worlds nearly falling to darkness. So he kept himself busy. He slept during the day, and at night he trained. He trained his body and his mind, honing the light that he knew was responsible for vanquishing the darkness that Xehanort had left in his heart. And he was doing fine, until everyone came to live with them. 

They arrived four days ago-Riku, Kairi, Roxas, Lea, and Xion-All prepared to learn from Aqua and Terra as Keyblade wielders. Riku insisted on being included as one of the students despite his rank of Master, and Ven had also decided to continue his training. In one day, Aqua and Terra had become the surrogate parents to six young Keyblade wielders, and it felt like they hadn’t stopped moving ever since. Training all day, Aqua and Terra were forced to give up their nocturnal lifestyle, paving the way for the darkness to return to their dreams and leaving them both less-than-rested in the morning. Coffee and various potions became the necessary beginning to each day, and nights felt more like what Terra was experiencing right now. 

He sighed and turned over onto his back once more. If it had been any quieter, he might not have heard the knock on his bedroom door, but being awake, he recognized the light sound instantly. 

“Come in,” he whispered, knowing Aqua would be listening on the other side for his response. She would know he was awake, but would give him the opportunity to feign sleep if he wasn’t up for talking. “Been a while since you snuck into my room at night.” 

“I know, right?” she laughed in the dark, closing the door behind her. “I guess no one’s going to yell at me if I get caught this time, though.” 

Terra felt a pang to his heart. The loss of their Master was one that still felt so raw in their hearts, but the chance to speak with him again on the grounds of Scala Ad Caelum had given Terra the redemption he felt his heart needed to mourn him properly. 

“It’s freezing in my room,” Aqua complained, crossing over to Terra’s bed and standing awkwardly beside it before sitting down on the mattress. “I swear it’s like the heat doesn’t even come on anymore.” 

“I’ll look at it in the morning,” Terra replied, feeling the familiar tightness in his chest at her proximity. He felt something else though, a worry about the sound of her voice-something wasn’t quite right. “Are you okay?”

“Are you mad at me, Terra?” she asked suddenly, Terra glad he was lying down as he felt his feet had been taken out from under him. She wasn’t looking at him, but rather down at the floor as she crossed her arms over her body and shivered. 

“What? No, of course not,” he answered honestly, shaking his head and sitting up more in bed, silently cursing the fact that he wasn’t wearing a shirt. “Why would you think that?”

“Because you haven’t talked to me in weeks,” she answered, still not taking her eyes off the floor. “Every time I enter a room, you leave it, and…and I…I miss you.” 

Terra didn’t know it was possible to feel as guilty as he did at that moment, but also had absolutely no idea what to tell her. He didn’t want to lie, but a love confession also didn’t sound like the right thing to do at three in the morning while Aqua was shivering on his bed in nothing but a pair of shorts and…

“Is that my shirt?” he asked without really thinking about it. He already knew the answer, as it was _the_ shirt he had been wearing for all those years. “I was wondering where that went.” 

“I didn’t think you’d notice,” Aqua answered with a thin smile, playing with the fabric that came halfway down her forearm despite hitting mid-bicep for Terra. 

“You spend twelve years wearing a shirt, you kind of grow attached to it,” he teased back, both of them sharing a forced laugh before falling silent again. “I’m…I’m not mad at you.” 

“Then what is it?” Aqua asked, turning to look him in the eye and making Terra feel like his insides were on fire. He unfortunately knew what that felt like now that he had trained with Lea-he was still growing back half of one of his eyebrows after a particularly hot training session two days ago. 

“I…” Terra started, shaking his head and stopping again. He had no idea what to say, but he wasn’t given much time to think about it because when he looked up Aqua had moved. She turned herself around and climbed completely onto the bed, straddling Terra and reaching for his face. “What are you-“ His words were clipped short by her mouth on his, and all thought was banished from his mind for an instant as suddenly there were too many tongues in his mouth before his brain came back online in turbo-mode. 

“Stop!” he cried, a little louder than what was necessary considering the quiet of the room. “Aqua, what are you doing?” He held her arms in each of his hands, keeping enough distance between them so he felt like he could breathe. 

“I…I don’t know,” she admitted, sounding close to tears. “I just…I miss you so much, Terra.” 

Terra thought his heart was going to hammer out of his chest as he watched Aqua break down in tears, pulling her head down to rest on his shoulder as she cried. 

“I…I’m sorry,” she cried. “I thought you wanted the same thing, I-“

“I do,” he answered before he could think about it, Aqua lifting her head to look at him again. “I do want it. It’s all I want. It’s all I can think about.” 

_Why was he telling her all of this? Did she short-circuit something in his brain when she kissed him? Stop talking now please_.

“Every time I’m in the same room as you all I can think about is how much I want you, but I don’t want to ruin our friendship,” he explained, hating how pathetic he sounded and wishing his stupid mouth would just stop talking. “You’re my best friend, Aqua…I can’t lose you again.” 

Aqua stared at him, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open. Every second that passed had his face growing redder and redder, and when he was certain he was about to explode, he looked down. 

“Please say something,” he whispered, afraid that she was going to leave and never speak to him again-that he had just lost his oldest friend in the world. 

This time she brought her hands up slowly, as if afraid that she would spook him if she moved too quickly. She cupped either side of his face and moved her face slowly towards his, giving him plenty of time to back out if he wanted-but he didn’t. This kiss was what first kisses were supposed to be like-slow and gentle and just a little bit clumsy-but he couldn’t care in the least because he was kissing the person he’d thought about night and day for the past twelve years, and there was nothing in the world that could ruin this moment for him. When she did finally pull away, he left his eyes closed, afraid if he opened them it would prove that this had all just been some cruel dream. 

“I love you, Terra.” 

His eyes did snap open at this, because even a dream couldn’t be this cruel-this had to be real.

“I think I’ve always loved you, but while I was in the Realm of Darkness I realized that it was more than that.” She rested her forehead on Terra’s, both of them closing their eyes once more.

“I…I love you too,” he replied, surprised at how easy the words rolled off his tongue. “It’s…it’s why I could hardly stand to look at you. I thought if you knew…you…you wouldn’t feel the same way.” 

“I’ve always felt the same way, you idiot,” she laughed, pulling his face to hers and kissing him again. There was more heat to this kiss, more passion, and Terra started to think about how many nights he could have been sharing this with Aqua before there was a castle full of teenagers surrounding them. They kissed for several minutes, neither wanting to be the one to pull away before they seemed to come to a natural stopping point, both panting in the other’s face and eyes looking glazed with a feeling that was completely new to both of them. 

“Can I sleep in your bed tonight?” Aqua asked, her voice barely audible over Terra’s heavy breaths. 

“Of course you can,” he answered with a bit of a dopey grin. “Not like it would be the first time.” 

Aqua smiled at him and stood up, padding over to the door and turning the lock before turning and walking back toward the bed. Terra watched in awe as she lifted the sheets and slid back in beside him, her body shifting until it was on top of his. 

“Oh, I don’t know. There might be a few firsts.”

VI.

Aqua couldn’t remember the last time she woke up to silence. Then again, she also couldn’t remember the last time she slept more than a couple hours at a time, and she vaguely wondered if her sleep schedule would ever resemble that of a normal human ever again. She was surprised to find a cold empty spot on the bed beside her, and one look to the empty bassinet beside the bed told her exactly where Terra had gone.

She padded down the hallway silently, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders as she listened at every door. She heard them before she saw them-Terra’s deep baritone mixed with the occasional whine and babble of their newest addition. 

“…so then your mom swoops out of nowhere, right? And she takes him out with one hit-it was amazing.” 

Aqua put her hand over her mouth to stifle her giggle, coming up to the nursery door and peering through the crack. Terra was bouncing in the center of the room, Pax held against his chest as he spoke, his eyes half closed in exhaustion. 

“Did I ever tell you about the time Mom and me snuck out of the castle when we were kids?” he yawned, bouncing the baby in his arms while he paced the floor. “It was her idea-she’ll tell you it was mine but that’s definitely not true-and as soon as we were outside she pushed me into the lake. She’ll tell you I fell, but that’s really neither here nor there…details really.” 

Pax whined, sounding like she was working her way up to a full-blown cry before Terra began shushing her once more. 

“Hey, hey, hey-we talked about this, remember? We’ve got to let Mommy get some sleep, yeah? She’s been up with you every night this week and she’s tired. What’ll it take, huh?”

Aqua leaned against the doorjamb and watched them, her two favorite people in the world, and wondered how she’d gotten so lucky. 

“Fine. But if you tell anyone our secret, I’ll let Ven babysit you again,” she heard Terra whisper, and she was confused as to what he was talking about until she heard something she had never heard before.

_Terra was singing_. 

“_Brilla brilla una stellina_  
_Su nel cielo piccolina_.  
_Brilla brilla sopra noi,_  
_Mi domando di chi sei._  
_Brilla brilla la stellina,_  
_Ora tu sei più vicina_.”

Aqua had to wipe her eyes to be able to see them again, Terra moving the baby to being cradled in his arms rather than upright against his chest. 

“My Mom used to sing that one to me,” he whispered to Pax. “She would have loved you so much. She used to…” 

Aqua walked away back down the hall to their bedroom, deciding she had eavesdropped enough on her husband and child for one night. Terra had been right-she’d been up every night this week, and she figured she should take advantage of the time he had given her to catch up on her sleep. 

The next morning, Aqua was mildly concerned that Terra still wasn’t in bed. Sitting up with a yawn, she stretched as she realized that was longest sleep she’d had in weeks. It was still early enough that the rest of the castle hadn’t begun to stir, although it was hard to hear them in the other wing of the castle. She and Terra had moved to a separate wing as soon as they found out Aqua was pregnant, figuring it wasn’t fair to a bunch of training teenagers to have to listen to a baby’s cries once it had arrived. 

The door to the nursery was still ajar, and Aqua immediately suppressed another giggle at the sight that greeted her. Terra was knocked out cold in the rocking chair, his head tilted back as he snored lightly. In his arms was a smiling, very much awake baby, her bright blue eyes watching Aqua carefully as she chewed on her own hand. 

“Good morning, beautiful,” Aqua whispered, picking her up gently from where she laid against Terra’s chest. “Did you give your Daddy a hard time last night?” 

Pax gurgled in apparent answer, the blue fuzz of her hair sticking straight up and making Aqua smile all the wider. 

“Why don’t we let Daddy get some more sleep while we go make Uncle Ven and the rest of the kids breakfast, huh?” She turned back to Terra, tossing a blanket from the crib over his sleeping form before heading out to get started with the day.


End file.
